Trek RPG Auction of the Week - 7/8/09

This could be a killer deal for someone. 10 of Last Unicorn Games' Star Trek The Roleplaying Game books, currently at $5.50 (plus lots of shipping!).

- Star Trek: The Next Generation - Core Game Book (LUG 25000, 1998)
- Star Trek: The Next Generation - Narrator's Toolkit (LUG 25001, 1998)
- Star Trek: The Next Generation - Player's Guide (LUG 25002, 1999)
- The Price of Freedom - The United Federation of Planets Sourcebook (LUG 25100, 1999)
- The First Line - Starfleet Intelligence Handbook (LUG 25101, 1998)
- The Way of Kolinahr - The Vulcans (LUG 25103, 1998)
- Planetary Adventures - Federation Space Volume 1 (LUG 25301, 1999)
- The Way of D'era - The Romulan Star Empire Boxed Set (LUG 25500, 1999)
- Star Trek: The Original Series - Core Game Book (LUG 45000, 1999)
- All Our Yesterdays - The Time Travel Sourcebook (LUG 15002, 1999)

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Looking Back 10 Years Ago

Just a quick entry here, because the meat is elsewhere. I ran across an entry from the SF Gaming column of RPGnet, a June 1999 interview that James Maliszewski (of Rogue Games and Grognardia fame) did with Ross A. Isaacs, author, designer and line editor of so much of the Last Unicorn Games and Decipher Star Trek role-playing games. I think Ross is at Eden Studios these days. I think. Actually, I'm not sure what's going on with Eden these days.

From the interview:

"Star Trek, as an RPG, must create new material to remain viable. The great thing is that Paramount understands this, and actually looks forward to seeing what we come up with."

*sigh*

"In the coming months, you'll learn about the Federation's Merchant Marines, Starfleet's organization, Starfleet Intelligence, Vulcan's dark past, where Mount Seleya is located, Risan history, Tellarite cities, and all about Romulan culture and space. Next year, we're going to tackle the Tholians, the Klingons and Cardassians. Will you see "original" material? Heck ya!"

*double sigh*

Anyway, check out the full Isaacs interview, a great blast from the past. And when you're done with that, check out James' inteview with author/developer Kenneth Hite from the same period.

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Trek RPG Auction of the Week - 6/25/09

I'm a little confused about what makes up this week's auction, so you may want to message the seller in advance for clarification. It's listed as DS9 RPG, the Next Gen RPG, The narrators guide, and the box set of The romulan Expansion, "the Path of D'ehra".

Based on the photos, I'm pretty sure it's Last Unicorn's 1999 releases of Star Trek Deep Space Nine Roleplaying Game, the DS9 Narrator's Toolkit by Christian Moore and The Way of D'Era: The Romulan Star Empire boxset by Ross Isaacs (I don't see the box in the pics, though). Also included seems to be Decipher's CODA system release of Star Trek Roleplaying Game Narrator's Guide from 2002.

The D'Era release alone is difficult and expensive to get, so if you can snatch this for $10 plus shipping, that's a great deal. But it's not a fraction as good as the material in the underrated DS9 books, so consider getting it for those!
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EDIT 6/25/09: Also, check out this seller's $2 Buy It Now Star Trek FASA Modules!

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Trek RPG Auction of the Week - 5/27/09

This (link to eBay) -- a box set of Last Unicorn's Star Trek Away Team Miniatures -- was going to be auction of the week... until it went to $70 in less than a day in a bidding war between two bidders, with over 4 days left. Crazy! Two months ago, they'd be lucky to get $20 for it. Oh well... (EDIT 5/28: WTH?!?! Nevermind, back down to $10).

That's okay. Get a load of this lot (left)! Nine books from Last Unicorn Games' Trek RPGs:

• STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION CORE GAME BOOK
• PLAYER'S GUIDE
• THE PRICE OF FREEDOM - THE UNITED FEDERATION OF PLANETS SOURCEBOOK
• PLANETARY ADVENTURES: Vol. 1 FEDERATION SPACE
• THE WAY OF KOLINAHR - THE VULCANS
• HOLODECK ADVENTURES
• DEEP SPACE NINE CORE GAME BOOK
• RAIDERS, RENEGADES, AND ROGUES
• ALL OUR YESTERDAYS: THE EXPANDED UNIVERSE TIME TRAVEL SOURCEBOOK

That's enough to keep you busy for years!

Still, you should pick this up while your at it: LUG's Star Trek Roleplaying Game TOS Core Series Book. Now we're talkin'.

But wait! There's more.....

Ultimo Avamposto's Star Trek TOS miniatures

As I mentioned in my previous post Trek Miniatures, Scale and Alternate Options, one of the coolest sets of miniatures wasn't made for a role-playing game at all, but for a boardgame. In 1999, the Italian company Ultimo Avamposto (literally "The Last Outpost", who runs the official Star Trek Italian Fan Club) released a boardgame called Star Trek Adventure: Serie Classica Set 1. According to the BoardGameGeek website, STA:SC is a strategy boardgame based on TOS for 2-4 players that includes a hexboard, cards, cardboard counters, and 17 unpainted pewter miniatures used to play the Federation, Klingons, Romulans or the Gorn. The game itself seems to be long out-of-print and difficult to obtain. It appears that it may have been intended to be the first of a series of Star Trek games (TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager) based on the box (below) and the "Set 1" tag.

The tokens for the game average 34mm in length, 30-32mm from top of base to eye-level. That puts them out of scale with most (but not all) gaming miniatures, but the entire collection gives a real variety of friends and foes. They really benefit from the larger scale, too, as these are really just about the nicest Trek miniatures I've ever seen. If you're trying to get them or the game, you might want to bookmark the eBay Seller's page of grandenagus (Massimo Romani of Ultimo Avamposto). I don't know if he has anymore after 10 years, but you never know. tokens for the game average 34mm in length, 30-32mm from top of base to eye-level. That puts them out of scale with most (but not all) gaming miniatures, but the entire collection gives a real variety of friends and foes. They really benefit from the larger scale, too, as these are really just about the nicest Trek miniatures I've ever seen. If you're trying to get them or the game, you might want to bookmark the eBay Seller's page of grandenagus (Massimo Romani of Ultimo Avamposto). I don't know if he has anymore after 10 years, but you never know.

In the meantime, documented here for posterity...

The Klingons

The Gorn

The Romulans

Scotty, Orion Slave Girl, Chekov
McCoy, Kirk and Spock pictured at top of post (missing: Sulu)

But wait! There's more.....

LUG Treks - The Lost and Untaken

Next to the FASA system, my favorite of the Trek RPG systems out there was that of Last Unicorn Games. Although its ICON system was a bit unusual, the rules were presented clearly and had a simplicity that the other games lacked, in my opinion. And it really feels like Star Trek. Some may disagree with their approach -- that is, releasing separate core books for TOS, TNG and DS9, leading to duplication and making it expensive to be a completist -- but when I compare it to Decipher's one-size-fits-all approach, I think LUG came out ahead.

Unfortunately, the strategy backfired when LUG was cut down in its prime in 2000 by its own finances, the Wizards of the Coast acquisition, and the subsequent granting of the Trek license to Decipher. As a result, a number of key parts of the Star Trek universe that were planned to be detailed by LUG never saw publication.

Thanks be to the Prophets for the Internet.

If you're a long-time LUG fan and player, you probably already know about the "lost" LUGTrek material. But if you're new to the hobby or just now picking up the books from eBay or online retailers, you'll want to check into these sites that have additional resources available for the game, and give you a glimpse of nearly half of the books that never saw the light of day*. Regardless of your favored system, these sites are well worth bookmarking and checking out.

Untaken Treks: The Unpublished LUGtrek Work of S. John Ross - SJR is one of the best writers and designers in the RPG industry. He's contributed to GURPS, WOTC and others, and for LUG wrote the fantastic Star Trek: The Original Series - Narrator's Toolkit and co-authored Among the Clans: The Andorians and others. Untaken Treks is the collection of his unpublished material for the LUGTrek RPG, and features draft excerpts from books such as Final Frontiers: The Star Trek Films, Sky Princes of Orion, The Klingon Empire: Blood and Honor, The Starfleet Exploration Handbook: To Boldly Go and more.

Steve Kenson's Star Trek: The Lost Episodes - Despite his insanely long CV, Steve is probably best known for Green Ronin Publishing's d20 superhero game Mutants and Masterminds and the True20 roleplaying system. As part of the LUG writers pool, he was a contributor to the DS9 Roleplaying Game, Planetary Adventures 1, and the box-sets The Way of D'era and Starfleet Academy. The Lost Episodes features his unpublished contributions to The Cardassian Union: Iron and Ash, The Klingon Empire: Blood and Honor, The Starfleet Security Handbook, and Through a Glass Darkly: The Mirror Universe and more.

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't point out Owen Oulton's wonderful Memory Icon, part of his Adventure Gaming in the Star Trek Universe website. Here he hosts the Official Last Unicorn Games support materials, official errata, and many fan creations. Perhaps most notable is SpaceDock! by Steve Long (HERO Games), a collection of rules and resources based on what was planned to be part of the books The Starfleet Starship Construction and Ship Recognition Manuals. Despite the dissolution of LUG, Steve kept working on the texts, and the end result is an incredibly complete and professional set of PDFs -- hundreds of pages that cover nearly everything from TOS to the Dominion War, all for free.

For a "dead system" LUG's Star Trek Roleplaying Game has more life and depth to it than many living, breathing RPGs... all thanks to the talents and contributions of these generous individuals.

* According to Memory Alpha, the Star Trek Wiki, Last Unicorn had planned the following books:

• Final Frontiers: The Star Trek Films
• The Star Trek Guide to Parallel Planets: Hodgkin's Law
• The Klingon Empire: Blood and Honor
• Operation Stormbird: The Neutral Zone Campaign Vol. 2
• The Starfleet Exploration Handbook: To Boldly Go
• The Starfleet Security Handbook
• Call of the Prophets: The Bajorans
• Dominion War: The Fires of Armageddon
• Merchants & Traders: The Latinum Main
• The Cardassian Union: Iron and Ash
• Through a Glass Darkly: The Mirror Universe
• The Starfleet Starship Construction Manual Vol. 1: Spacedock
• The Starfleet Starship Recognition Manual Vol. 1: The Ships of Starfleet
• The Borg
• Deep Space Nine Player's Guide
• The Orion Syndicate
• The Rigel System
• The Dominion Companion
• Star Trek: Voyager Core Game Book
• Sky Princes of Orion

But wait! There's more.....